The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is modernizing its Safety Measurement System (SMS) to enhance road safety and simplify compliance monitoring. Here's what motor carriers need to know about the upcoming changes.
Three Major Updates
1. Streamlined Compliance Categories
The FMCSA has reorganized its compliance categories to better reflect safety priorities:
A new "Vehicle Maintenance: Driver Observed" category separates violations that drivers can identify during routine inspections
Controlled Substances/Alcohol violations now fall under Unsafe Driving
Operating while Out-of-Service violations are consolidated into relevant categories
2. Simplified Violation Groups
The current system's 2,000+ individual violations will be consolidated into approximately 100 violation groups. This means:
Similar safety issues are grouped together
Multiple violations of the same type during one inspection count as a single violation
Carriers face more consistent evaluation standards
Focus shifts to identifying safety issues rather than counting violations
3. Clear-Cut Severity Weights
Gone is the complex 1-10 scale. The new system uses just two weights:
Weight of 2: Out-of-Service violations and Driver Disqualifying violations
Weight of 1: All other violations
What This Means for Your Operation
These changes will streamline how you:
Monitor safety performance
Prepare for inspections
Address compliance issues
Train your drivers
Next Steps
Preview your data on the CSA Prioritization Preview website
Update your safety programs to align with new categories
Train your team on the new violation groups
Review your maintenance and compliance procedures
Stay Informed
The FMCSA continues to refine these changes through industry feedback and data analysis. Future webinars will address additional updates, including:
Improved intervention thresholds
Additional compliance category changes
Updated utilization factors
Questions? Contact the CSA InfoLine Team at 877-254-5365 or visit https://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/PrioritizationPreview. |